Chapter 118: Second year exam (5)

*Thud*

As Homura lands and jumps off a tree branch, leaves are scattered from the branches he happens to come in contact with.

But the beauty of that spectacle was the last thing on his mind.

He had been hopping on and off trees for over 2 years now, the mysticism of being able to jump such great distance was now gone and he wished there was a way to travel much faster than having to rely on his physical abilities.

-…(This is taking longer than I thought.)

He had been hopping from tree to tree for almost an hour and the timer for completing this mission was getting shorter.

As he expected, the distance between his targeted location and the one the others went to were very quite far apart.

Meeting with the others would be a waste of time.

He would have to make it to the end goal and hope the others were lucky in their pursuit.

-(C, How long until I get there at my current speed?)

-< At the current speed, approximately 134 seconds. >

-(I see…Sharingan!)

Homura activated his Sharingan as he feared that something might something more in store for him.

Such as another scroll or task for him to complete.

The thing about studying for becoming a ninja was that nothing was truly as it seemed.

Especially, when studying at the academy.

They put as much value on students being able to think critically, but also let enough leeway for most students to be able to pass most tests if they showed enough physical ability.

-(This is bad…what kind of plant grows in a forest full of dense trees this one…This area is nothing like the others.)

As Homura was nearing his end goal, he began to panic.

Simply for the fact that he had yet to arrive at a field or open-air field.

-(If this goes on I may have to-!)

Before Homura had a chance to finish his last thought, a shuriken came from nowhere and landed on the tree branch that he was about to jump off.

Instead, he stopped before jumping and took out two shurikens from one of his pouches with his right hand.

-(What's going on…?)

Suddenly from his right side, 4 kunais were thrown towards him.

Homura used the two shurikens to knock out the four kunais thrown at him.

When that was done he used a kunai tied to a wire to get down from the tree branch he was standing on top of.

But then two shurikens cut the wire Homura was using to get down, but as soon as the wire was cut off Homura threw 2 kunais onto the trunk of a tree nearby and managed to land on them.

-(This is getting annoying I only have one kunai left in my left pouch…If I don't find my target soon I will be in trouble…not to mention I won't be able to keep the sharingan active for much longer.)

Suddenly Homura heard rustling from above him and soon after a cloaked figure, darted toward him.

It was so fast that if Homura didn't have access to the sharingan he would have been done for.

Instead, he darted toward the cloaked figure and both Homura's and kunai clashed against each other, leaving a bright yellow spark from the encounter, but soon they passed each other as they each landed on a different tree branch.

-(He's strong…)

But soon the cloaked figure used a smoke bomb and disappeared, but since the smoke cloud was so thick Homura had to close his eyes for a brief second.

But that was almost enough for Homura to lose track of his foe.

If it was not for Homura's sharingan being able to see chakra he'd have lost his target.

-(He's there!)

Homura soon jumped off and landed on the ground, a small margin away from the masked individual.

Which they seemed to immediately realized that they had been found out and soon exited their hiding place, from behind a tall tree.

However, as he had thought it was over and done, Homura was surprised that he could still see inklings of chakra coming from behind the tree the individual in front of him was previously hiding.

-(What?!)

Homura soon realized that there were more people hiding behind the tree.

Since they were so close to each other it was hard for Homura to clearly discern several clues that could give away such a ruse or oversight on his part.

Homura's sharingan as immature as it was, only allowed him to see chakra more in the form of a blob that depended on several things to tell him what he was even looking at, however, the sharingan paling in the face of the byakugan, at least when it came to the ability seeing chakra; could never provide a clear framework to their users when it came to chakra.

If Homura was able to see chakra pathways such an oversight on his part would never have happened.

He would be able to make better choices.

Nonetheless, the ability to see chakra clearly gave him such a large advantage that he believed that he could not be tricked as long as his sharingan was activated.

He had been overconfident and he was now paying for his lack of prudence.

To think he was able to be tricked so easily, and by an opponent who was even unaware that he had a sharingan.

Was quite a fearsome realization.

If they knew he had that ability on speed dial, they would have won easily through trickery alone.

So Homura did the logical thing and put more space in between them by jumping backward several times, ready to make a dash at any moment so that he could run away at any moment.

However, he was quick to think on his feet, and before he land on the ground one final time he swallowed something he took out from his ninja pouch strapped to his waist.

And because misfortune rarely ever comes by its lonesome.

The man soon pulled on the rope he was holding in his right hand and from behind it came the figures of his passed-out teammates.

- ! Haruno! Gekkou!

Homura yelled for his teammates but he had no response, panicking from this fact alone he let go of any strategic thinking and simply dashed toward his foe as fast as he could.

Before he believed it was just a test, but now his memories of that fateful night in the Uchiha clan intertwined with the current situation.

As Gekkou's and Sakura's figures suddenly shifted to the dead bodies of Akane and Toshio.

His sharingan was reactivated without his knowledge, but perhaps it was a godsent miracle since it allowed him to avoid 4 kunai aimed directly toward him at a fast speed.

He let the one that was ahead of the pack, stab him in his shoulder, but not before managing to knock out the other 3 with his last 2 kunais by deflecting on such an angle that the 3rd kunai was struck down by one of the projectiles going sideways as it got knocked out.

However, that was far from the last thing that happened after that exchange since as soon as Homura threw the last kunai on his hand, he started waving hand seals.

The first seal that Homura made with his hands was the snake seal, followed by the ram seal.

Which left the hooded figure shocked.

Any shinobi from the land of fire would recognize those two seals being used back to back, since it usually only meant one thing, Katon or fire-style ninjutsu, and any jutsu.

The one jutsu that the Uchiha clan was famous for, was about to be performed by the 8 years old boy in a real combat situation.

And since Homura was running towards the hooded figure, so fast, and without ever slowing down; it only meant that he was planning to sacrifice himself.

- Snake → Ram → Monkey → Boar → Horse → Tiger! Katon Gokyak-peuw!

*Boom*

However, instead of using the great fire ball jutsu, Homura spat out a ball projectile in between the hooded figure's legs; which caused a thick purple cloud to be created as soon as the ball-shaped projectile hit the ground.

Which Homura used as an opening to grab the kunai he had been with, and used it to try to stab the individual's arm holding the rope.

*Poof*

Sadly, instead of his target getting his hand stabbed, the figure vanished in a cloud of white smoke and soon a long dropped to the ground.

Leaving Homura surprised as his sharingan finally turned off as Homura dropped to his knees.

- (I-I hit my limit!)

Nonetheless, Homura used the few remnants of his strength to get close to his teammates, but as soon as his hand touched Gekkou's back, he and Sakura turned into training dummies.

- W-wha…transformation jutsu…on objects?

Homura was incredibly surprised that someone was able to use the transformation technique not on themselves or a living thing but on, an object.

The dummies even had some sort of tags with a formula written on their foreheads.

However, his stupor quickly settles down as he remembered that this wasn't actually that shocking.

He had experienced way weirder things.

Also, using transformation jutsu on objects wasn't as surprising as he initially thought.

-(Right…Kankuro, did something similar to one of his puppets during the chunin exam. )

Rather than the odd usage of a transformation jutsu, a jutsu so basic that students are taught it in their first year at the academy, what was truly surprising was that he got tricked by a substitution jutsu.

Normally a sharingan should be able to pick up when an opponent is using chakra to perform a jutsu, thus avoiding the user from being tricked or being caught off guard.

He had experience in fighting opponents much stronger than himself from so many hours of mental training, however, no amount of mental preparations would prepare him for fighting against real ninjas.

Nonetheless, Homura's current inexperienced self was not savvy enough to pick up on every little thing happening in a battle.

In a single moment, which lasted less than a second, Homura lost sight of his target and they managed to use the substitution to trick him.

A jutsu that Homura was not really privy to or ever seen in real life.

If this was really how shinobi do fight outside the academy, it becomes quite evident that being a shinobi is far more dangerous than he previously imagined.

A jutsu that every shinobi must know becomes so useful and deadly, that every altercation could end up with one party making a wrong move and getting killed quite easily.

Thus Homura was quite afraid, at least it would be the case.

If not for the message strapped to the log the shinobi used to vanish out of thin air.

Which said in plain letters: 'Dead end, rejoin the others.'

- So that means that they were never in danger…but he did stab me…No…I let myself get stabbed on purpose…(Now that I think about it, those projectiles he threw at me…none of them were aimed directly at a vital spot or any spot on my body for a matter of fact. If I just remained frozen in place then…Was he one of my teachers? A shadow clone?….this is weird. ) Homura thought as he scratched his head and then proceeded to lean against a tree nearby.

Homura could not help to wonder who it was that he had just fought against.

Since he never saw their face he could only speculate.

He was certain that the person he fought against in the beginning was a teacher or some sort of trial, however, as he saw what appeared to be his teammates' bodies, he stopped thinking rationally and simply attacked.

Now that the whole ordeal was over, he was left with many questions.

He just hoped that his thick glasses helped him prevent giving his opponent too many clues about him having a sharingan.

With most Uchihas now gone, no one would ever think that anyone besides Sasuke or even Kakashi had it.

———-

Perched on a rather tall tree a lone man was watching everything that took place between Homura and the hooded figure.

Until the same hooded figure that was previously fighting Homura appeared next to him.

While taking a knee and facing downwards, not daring to raise their head without being ordered to, as if common for those serving an important figure or a powerful lord.

Admittedly, the person he catered to was accurately described in all of those ways.

- It is done Danzo-sama. (???)

- Yes, I was able to spectate everything.

The man with half his face hidden by bandages looked at the man next to him and was bothered by the fact there was a tiny cut on the man's cloak.

It is quite small but it still made him quite irritated.

Not because the man had been careless but because, if he had known the boy had that much potential ahead of time.

He believed he could have used him, for himself.

As of now, the boy would only end up stronger.

Not only that the boy was quite clever.

For some reason, he knew the hand seals for performing the great fire ball jutsu, and used it as bait to force his opponent to try to stop him from using the jutsu.

As well as using himself as bait.

How children within the academy would be willing to risk their own lives so easily for a gamble that had a high risk of failure, let alone arrive at that conclusion?

-…Clever brat. (The fear of death is not yet completely gone from his mind, but he still chose to discard it in a moment of unfiltered anger when he saw his comrades.)

Danzo could tell that Homura was truly not a normal child, but he still had attachments to his classmates, and those were not even classmates that the report said he was close to.

Rather, they especially made sure it would be individuals that he seemed to not be particularly close to.

He had several operatives at the academy, it was simple to arrange such a thing.

If Orochimaru who was a wanted fugitive was able to get close to Mizuki in the future, it was child's play for Danzo, one of the respected elders to be able to pull some strings.

- (That boy's movements and tactics are those of someone who is used to fighting stronger opponents than himself…Was that due to Might Guy's training?… But at the end of the day, it is still quite amateurish, he lacks the pain and experience that comes from being in a real battle to the death. That cannot be easily faked at his current level… Was I overthinking?)

Though he was able to confirm several things that were not in the report he had on the boy, at the end of the day most of what he thought about the boy's ability was indeed true.

Talented enough to become quite the excellent shinobi, though nothing extraordinary.

There had been more physically gifted academy students than the boy reflected within his eye and there had been geniuses with a strategic intellect far greater.

A boy like Homura that was ahead of his peers, or behaved far more maturely and had the physical ability to give adults somewhat of a run for their money was nothing new.

For Danzo who heard stories and had been born at the end of the warring state period, it was nothing too out of the norm.

He himself was a talented child during his peak era, but he could never truly compete against the genius that was Sarutobi Hiruzen.

Who had been born exceptionally gifted.

And strong that even to this day there was no stronger shinobi within the village, a man who had managed to remain Hokage for decades.

Thus, for Danzo who envied Hiruzen for most of his life.

He could quite accurately discern Homura's abilities at first glance, there was no need to use the sharingan.

Though Homura seemed to be able to react to things better than he had thought possible for a boy at his current level.

Sadly, he did tell the hooded individual to simply test Homura. If they had truly tried to kill the boy or give him a real fight he wondered how different it all would have been.

Nonetheless, Danzo looking at an exhausted Homura on the ground could not help to think that the boy lacked stamina.

It seemed no different from the average academy student.

-…Follow the boy from afar, and see if anyone makes contact with him prior to him rejoining any of the academy staff or classmates.

-Understood! (???)

*poof*

Then Danzo's body disappeared as a popping sound was heard, followed by a cloud of white dust.

Revealing that the man that had been watching Homura this whole time was nothing more than a shadow clone.

The real Danzo was nowhere close to that location, and was seating in his own underground root office as he was looking at a pair of floating sharingans inside a vile filled with a green liquid.

-…I see.

Suddenly all the events that transpired were soon relayed to him.

But the old couldn't really care any less since he knew that recruiting the boy under Hiruzen's, the current Hokage's eyes, would be difficult.

Especially now that his influence had been reduced.

But to Danzo, none of that was important, he would only have to bid his time and find an opportune moment to get what he wanted.

After all for a man who had the title and seat of Hokage denied to him, but still aspired to have it; waiting for the opportune time to strike was simple enough.

Chapter end.